Hi all, My comments on the on wearing a PFD has triggered off a flood of comments, about half negative and half positive, which I find very encouraging. Many, who has written to me, seem indeed wear inflatable PFDs, but none use a thin tether. As I as yet have delegated our inflatable PFDs for really hot, balmy days I have not tried them in earnest, but we have an old inflatable PFD attached to our emergency kit drybag and that uses a tether. The string is just so strong that you can rip it off easily, if you haven't got the time, urge, or possibility, to untie it. Before we started to use a single ama (we like to sail our kayak) we used the old PFD as a paddlefloat, simply by keeping it stuffed it in a bag that could be slipped over the paddle blade, and then you janked the cord! On another tack, I loved John's comment that he uses no PFD, no cellular, just nothing in the way of safety equipment, just being content in his own ability. Simplicity is beautiful, but a inflatable PFD would make it easier to retrieve him, would something go amiss, just as a dog is easier to get out of the water with a PFD on! A friend of a friend is part-time fisherman (spends half the year fishing, half as a colleage teacher), who, as long as his dad is up to it, takes his elderly dad along, who probably should have retired long ago! Anyway, they were out fishing for herring in a deep fiord up north, on a very still spring morning. Suddenly my friend's friend thought he heard a call for help. He asked his dad if he could hear anything, but no. Again, he throught he heard a call, so he took out his binoculars and started to scan the horizon, and eventually spotted a similar boat to theirs, at the other end of the big fiord. The boat looked empty, but wasn't there something at the stern? He passed the binoculars to his dad, but at his age his eyes weren't as good as his son. My friend's friend decided, against his dad's protests against abandoning the nets, that they had to investigate, NOW! Full speed and as they came closer they could see a man desperately clinging on to the rear of his boat, but unable to get back on board, being cold and desparately tired. They got him onboard and hurried to shore, raising help with the help of their safety equipment. What had happened was that the man had got some net in his propeller, and while tugging on the net, to free the prop, he had simply slipped on the deck and fallen overboard. Naturally no PFD, nor dry suit! Hadn't the 'kid' (now in his 50's) had acute hearing and sight the then 50+ guy would have been a goner, as the strength in old man's arms were almost all but gone! I'll keep my PFD on, and I can't make anyone using their( brain)s, but I hope some will be inspired to use theirs, if just to make them easier to salvage! Tord, Sweden *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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